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Baugur boss: no more big deals until my name is cleared

THE chief executive of the Baugur retail group has called a halt to his programme of buying quoted British retailers after fraud charges were brought against him in his native Iceland.

In an interview with The Sunday Times, Jon Asgeir Johannesson, who through his privately owned Baugur group directly controls more than 1,100 UK outlets, said he will not make any big-name bids until his name has been cleared.

“High-profile public-to-privates will be difficult over the next six months while we clean this up,” he said. “It (the fraud charges) is going to set us back a bit.” Johannesson expects to go on trial in October, with a verdict due at the end of the year.

He also moved to calm fears about the financial health of his highly leveraged empire. He insisted “it was business as usual” for the group’s existing investments, which include Iceland, the food retailer, and